Finding Aid

Digital Surrogates: Except where indicated, this document describes but does not reproduce the actual text, images and objects which make up this collection. Materials are available only in the Special Collections Department.

Use of Collections: The University of Iowa Libraries supports access to the materials, published and unpublished, in its collections. Nonetheless, access to some items may be restricted by their fragile condition or by contractual agreement with donors, and it may not be possible at all times to provide appropriate machinery for reading, viewing or accessing non-paper-based materials. Please read our Use of Manuscripts Statement.

Acquisition and Processing Information: These materials were donated to the University Archives by Marion Miller's wife, Jeannine Miller, in March 2001. Guide created in December 2007.

Photographs: None

Marion R. Miller, 1942

The Hawkeye yearbook, 1943

Scope and Contents

This collection includes 12 journals (diaries) written by Marion Miller dated June 6, 1940, through April 30, 1943, while Mr. Miller was a student at the State University of Iowa. He wrote about his routine as a student, such as staying up late to study and meeting with friends.

Biographical Note

Marion Russell Miller was born January 25, 1920 in Henning, Minnesota. He grew up on his parents' farm in Anita, Iowa, where he attended high school. After graduation he attended the State University of Iowa from 1939 to 1943, and earned a B.A. in English.

Mr. Miller served as a sergeant in the U.S. Army during World War II and was wounded during the Battle of the Bulge. He married Jeannine Lalou on November 8, 1952, in Paris, and the couple had one daughter, Alice. After the war ended he continued working for the Army as a civilian in France and Belgium. One Army department in which he served was MIS-X Det, where he researched European citizens who aided American airmen who had fallen behind enemy lines. His work with this office earned him the Médaille de la Reconnaissance Française. After completing this two-year project he studied at the Sorbonne in Paris.
In 1955 he moved to Verdun, France, where he worked for the U.S. Army and earned a degree in business administration from the University of Maryland through their overseas education program.

He returned to the United States in 1965 and worked at U. S. Army arsenals in New Jersey and Rock Island, Illinois. Following his retirement from Army employment in 1986, he earned a B.A. in French and Spanish from the University of St. Ambrose in Davenport, Iowa. Marion Miller died January 5, 2000.